Entertainment
Sujoy Ghosh opens up on his rapport with Vidya
Mumbai: Filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh has opened up on what had gone wrong in his rapport with actress Vidya Balan, who worked with him in the hit 2012 thriller film “Kahaani”.After “Kahaani”, when Vidya turned down his next film, Ghosh was shattered.Ghosh said: “It was unexpected. And I was disappointed. But it wasn’t Vidya’s fault at all. We build all these unreasonable expectations from all those whom we love. And then, when they are unable to fulfil these inflated expectations we are hurt.”
“It isn’t fair to ourselves or to whose whom we love and expect to love up to our hopes. Even if she is your wife why would you expect her to have your meal on the table every day?”He said: “When I narrated a script to Vidya, she told me not to call it ‘Kahaani 2’. She felt it was not in that genre at all. She was completely right. But I was hurt. Anyway, I moved to other projects which for some reason didn’t materialise. For example, I was supposed to do a film adaptation of Keigo Huganshino’s Japanese novel “The Devotion Of Suspect X”. It was to be produced by Balaji Telefilms. Only they know what went wrong. I was destined to do another film with Vidya only. So here I am.”
Four years after “Kahaani”, Ghosh and Vidya are back together. “I know of several heroines who give their heart, soul and limb to a character. But Vidya’s dedication is on another level of passion altogether. When she heard the script she decided the character will wear no make-up. “And she stuck by her resolve, didn’t sneak make-up on when I wasn’t looking. You will see her looking like yesterday night’s chapatti in this film. For the sequence, where she runs out on the street after her daughter is kidnapped, Vidya lay on the busy Grand Trunk Road for two hours with heavy traffic all around her. Which actress would have the balls to do this?”He says he is not bogged down by expectations.
“We did something unexpected in ‘Kahaani’ four years ago. And when we had a pregnant woman running through the streets of Kolkata, people considered us mad. But you should have passion (lekin ek junoon toh honi chahiye). Vidya has the passion. I have it too, I think. I know people expect another ‘Kahaani’ from me and Vidya. We are going to tell another kahaani (story). Hopefully, this one will grip audiences’ minds the same way as the first film.””You can’t make a film based on what people expect from you. ‘Kahaani 2’ has been made because there is a story we want to tell and not because the audiences expect another ‘Kahaani’ from me and Vidya.”
Entertainment
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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